In your case it depends . Did he still have to pawn in his hand when he saw that you was about to take it ?

A move is said to be concluded when a player finishes a legal move by taking his hand off the piece played . If he still holds the piece in his hand , the move is not yet concluded , but now he must play (any legal ) move with that piece. He's not allowed to play with any other piece.

So , if he played a different piece and pressed the clock , you can point it out to him or call the director and claim extra time.

Right when I was about to take it, he quickly grabbed it back and made another move.

But he didn't press his clock yet though.

Well you say his hand was off the pawn and the move he played was legal. It's now a concluded move : his pawn is considered to be played.

You say he did another move and that is illegal . I would now start to attrackt the attention of the arbiter , but since he didn't press his clock yet , I would wait for my opponent to press the clock and only then lay it before the judge.

It doesn't matter if he took his hand off the pawn or not. Once he touched it, he MUST move it if there is a legal move he can make with it. NO EXCEPTIONS in tournament play.

The only problem is the type of player who tries to take back a move usually has no problem LYING about it. So a witness would help a lot, perhaps a player at an adjoining board or a spectator saw it happen. Stop the clock and summon the arbiter first, though. There is no point in trying to find witnesses first, wait until the arbiter comes and see if the guy denies touching the piece.

I wouldn't call this uncommon at a tournament. But under tournament rules, if he takes his hand off the piece, he can take it right back if his clock is still ticking provided he must move that piece for that turn. If he puts it back and moves another piece, he has made an illegal move and you should holler for an adjudicator to remove the fool. But if he moves the pawn forward twice and sees you prepare your bishop to take, provided his clock is going he has every right to make it a single move forward.

So funny. Right after I posted my question, I came across this chess book, read through all 300 pages and came across the same Kasparov vs Polgar match where Kasparov apparently cheated slightly.

It was my first tournament so all I cared about was gaining experience, mostly psychologically handling the pressure, adrenaline, and other factors. Doesn't matter if I won or loss. I'm glad I learned about the touch move rule so next time, it won't happen to me again in a real tournament.

Lesson: Don't be too nice to the person beforehand. Otherwise, he might take advantage of your kindness which was what the guy did lol.

Your opponent should, at the very least, move the pawn. By the rules, he should leave the pawn where he put it in the first place. No discusion whatsoever.

What I have to tell you is that you can´t move your pieces until your opponent finish the move, this means, after he presses the clock. If he doesn´t press the clock, is not "legally" your turn yet.

What you can do is take a bishop and, without droping it at all, put it from c1 to d2 and then, you think is not good, you can put it back c1, drop it, think again, and move it finally to e3 for instance. This is perfectly OK. Of course, once you touch the bishop in the first place, you must move it.

As a little advise, use first your brain and then your hand always, it´s easier. Also pick up one routine: think, move, press the clock and note the move, in this order, and you´ll be fine. Do you know how to ask for a draw correctly?

Some (usually blitz) tournaments has the additional rule that the clock finalizes the move, not releasing the piece.

I think this is for all games really, the clock finalizes the move always. Not in blitz, not in slow time controls you can move one piece, drop it off, and then think about take it back. All is left is press the clock, no other choice, or resign :D